


Graduation

by Brachylagus_fandom



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Child Abandonment, Child Neglect, Dark Past, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-23
Updated: 2016-06-23
Packaged: 2018-07-14 11:32:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7169288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brachylagus_fandom/pseuds/Brachylagus_fandom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How the Crystal Gems found Amethyst.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Graduation

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Allekha](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Allekha/gifts).



The Kindergarten always gave Pearl chills. It was too much like another incubation center, light centuries away and long since destroyed, for her liking. Pearls were not supposed to feel anything, but the inescapable urge to leave filled her with fear. Still, she pressed on for Rose.

The walls of the canyon towered over her, broken injectors lying where they had been deactivated. It was as bare and desolate as it had been before the war, before Rose had taken her shield and sent it into the console to end this madness. Rose's Rebellion had started here, not with Garnet, not on some far-off battlefield, but in a place once filled with color that now could only be called Death Valley.

Garnet looked up abruptly, her three eyes scanning the area. There was nothing to be found but a warp pad and some broken machinery, but something felt off to her. It took mere moments for her suspicions to be confirmed.

"I'll be right back. Something's here," Garnet said calmly as she ran off. Pearl drew her spear. The only things that they had ever found here were shards and corrupted gems. Suddenly, a flash of lilac streaked across Pearl's vision. The hunt was on.

This corrupted gem knew the Kindergarten well. Pearl sighed as she raced through the twisting offshoots of the main canyon; native corruptions were always the worst to fight, not the least because they could have been saved. The Crystal Gems should have been able to save them, but they had to save the world first… 

While Pearl was thinking of what could have been and pretending she wasn't guilty, the gem jumped her. Pearl's shriek sent Garnet and Rose running to the sight of their wrestling match. It took Pearl pinning the wriggling gem in a headlock for any of them to get a good look at her. She was small, explaining her ability to hide but not her strength or speed, with wide eyes and a gash on her forehead, probably from their fight. In her moment of distraction, the gem bit Pearl's arm and raced out of her grip to find herself in a dead end.

"She's not corrupted," Rose gasped. "Child, what's your name?" The girl tilted her head.

"Name?" the gem asked, confused.

"What are you called?"

"Nasty Lady called me Am-eh-thi-st." The name was carefully sounded out as if it had been practiced over and over enough to be worn down.

"Nasty Lady?"

"Called Pair-ee-dot. She left a while ago."

"Then who are you with?" No one should be here.

"Rocks! There's Big Rock and Hard Rock and Little Rock and Geoffrey and…" Rose and Pearl shared a look. This was impressively bad, even for them.

"Well, Amethyst, I'm Rose Quartz, this is Pearl, and that's Garnet. How would you feel about going home with us?" Rose, with all of her heart and none of Garnet's foresight, asked. Amethyst's eyes grew wide.

"Really? You want  _ me _ ?"

"Yes, I do. Why wouldn't I?"

"Pair-ee-dot didn't. Said I was too small."

"Well, Peridot was wrong. You're perfect just the way you are." Amethyst grinned and took Rose's offered hand. "Now come on. We've got a world to protect."

**Author's Note:**

> A few things I want to elaborate on a bit:
> 
> The Crystal Gems were looking around the Kindergarten to see if someone had attempted to reactivate it. They've done this before, but Amethyst managed to avoid them.
> 
> It is my personal belief that (at the very least) most, if not all, of the corrupted gems we see on the show were from the Kindergarten. This is because the other gems evacuated after the war, leaving the ones unable to leave, the Crystal Gems, and the Kindergarten gems who either hadn't emerged or had just emerged. It also brings a whole new level of fucked-upness to the show and explains Rose's guilt to a larger degree than if the corrupted gems were random; she believed that she could've saved them if she'd won the war more quickly or that they were her responsibility.
> 
> Amethyst spent a really long time (as in, hundreds to thousands of years) alone in the Kindergarten, making her speech a bit off. I'm not exactly sure why one of the rocks is names Geoffrey.


End file.
